Carbon Trading is like, "Trading sand on a beach"

From GAR at Grist...  very gristy indeed.

Carbon Trading is not intended to reduce emissions:

...lobbyists, the carbon traders, do not exist to reduce emissions, but to trade carbon.

 

, there are strong political economy arguments against carbon trading: We have a big enough carbon lobby to fight without creating a whole additional political sector with a self-interest in maintaining emissions. Specific examples follow.

Unfortunately, the players involved saw the priority as preserving the market rather than as reducing emissions.

Similarly, the CDM market is pretty widely acknowledged to be a failure. The primary claimed goal behind CDM was to develop clean infrastructure for poor nations. (That is why it was called "Clean Development Mechanism," not "Cheap Carbon Credit Provider.")

I would add that that there are serious questions [PDF] about whether CDM carbon credits even represent net reductions, without qualified regulating project-based credit generation.

The evidence is overwhelming that CDM increases emissions.

The world's main carbon markets are all created... with ideological stakes in trading and those with financial stakes in carbon markets lobbying for the interests of these markets over creating actual emissions cuts. That should come as no surprise.

Read full from GAR at Grist...